AUDIOBOOK
About
FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LAST ORDERS AND MOTHERING SUNDAY, reissued for the first time in Scribner
Prentis, employed in the police archives, is becoming confused. His obsession with the plight of his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, is alienating him from his wife and children, while at work he feels under scrutiny from his intimidating boss, Quinn. Gradually, Prentis suspects that his father's breakdown and Quinn's menacing behaviour are related and that the connection is to be found in his father's memoir: 'Shuttlecock'.
Shuttlecock is an intense psychological thriller and much more. With poignant force and sometimes dark comedy, it links the secrecies and quirks of domestic life with the enigmas and violence of crime and war.
'A small masterpiece' The Guardian
'Excellent, profound' Alan Hollinghurst
Graham Swift was born in 1949. He is the author of eleven novels, most recently Here We Are; three collections of short stories, including the highly praised England and Other Stories; and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland he won the Guardian Fiction Prize and with Last Orders the Booker Prize. Mothering Sunday became a worldwide bestseller and won the Hawthornden Prize for best work of imaginative literature. All three novels were made into films. His books have appeared in over thirty-five languages. 'A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession.' 'A small masterpiece.' 'A novel as elegant in construction as in style…Serious, moving and often very funny indeed.' 'An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour.' 'Thoroughly gripping and beautifully written.' 'Excellent, profound.' 'Swift's central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story an character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour – Shuttlecock is thoroughly and beautifully odd – always honours them.'
Prentis, employed in the police archives, is becoming confused. His obsession with the plight of his father, a wartime hero now the mute inmate of a mental hospital, is alienating him from his wife and children, while at work he feels under scrutiny from his intimidating boss, Quinn. Gradually, Prentis suspects that his father's breakdown and Quinn's menacing behaviour are related and that the connection is to be found in his father's memoir: 'Shuttlecock'.
Shuttlecock is an intense psychological thriller and much more. With poignant force and sometimes dark comedy, it links the secrecies and quirks of domestic life with the enigmas and violence of crime and war.
'A small masterpiece' The Guardian
'Excellent, profound' Alan Hollinghurst
Graham Swift was born in 1949. He is the author of eleven novels, most recently Here We Are; three collections of short stories, including the highly praised England and Other Stories; and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland he won the Guardian Fiction Prize and with Last Orders the Booker Prize. Mothering Sunday became a worldwide bestseller and won the Hawthornden Prize for best work of imaginative literature. All three novels were made into films. His books have appeared in over thirty-five languages. 'A superbly written claustrophobic account of power that corrupts private and public life and of guilt that becomes obsession.' 'A small masterpiece.' 'A novel as elegant in construction as in style…Serious, moving and often very funny indeed.' 'An astonishing study of forms of guilt, laced with a thread of detection, and puckering now and then into outrageous humour.' 'Thoroughly gripping and beautifully written.' 'Excellent, profound.' 'Swift's central strength as a writer is his integrity. Story an character are treated with a seriousness and respect that while allowing for the oddity of human behaviour – Shuttlecock is thoroughly and beautifully odd – always honours them.'